Testing

I often know what I am doing or what I have to do. From the early beginning I was sure what I am making, I had my stories ready and all was needed just to animate and so on.

But I can feel how I am changing, how this course is changing me. I am no longer just I have to make it work and right away person. I became very thoughtful and sometimes maybe too much.

During Mid Point Review somebody suggested to use colour pencils if I’m in need of colour as I mentioned that I have problems with contrasts and colours.

That moment, I didn’t really take it, because how on earth I will betray my regular graphite pencils??? I listened. I wrote it down, because I am trying to listen and see through other eyes.

Shortly, I remembered that and after my visit to art supplies store I grabbed few pastel colour pencils to give it a go. Of course, first I tried for my side project, to see if I can make painting and drawing work together. And since pastel pencil drawings are more bold, I thought it can overlay very nicely. Like a scribble. Or doodle.

I played a little, tried to draw on large pieces of paper than usually and loosen up my wrist. I wanted flow, I wanted uncertainty.

Since I thought that my side project worked out, I decided to draw my streetwalker again.

I was surprised that it was easier and quicker to draw and if I’m lucky in one day I can make few seconds of animations.

I tried to animate few postures and face.

I guess I was aiming for a bit detailed, but sketchy style. Actually, I was just drawing the way I wanted, without too much thinking, just enjoyed my new pastel pencils 🙂

So, I must say, I’m pretty happy to end up with these tests. It’s funny, that one small change could make so much difference. It doesn’t happen a lot or often, but I am hypnotized.

I think that I chose a perfect material, which lets me to be more rough and that gives a character once all frames are put together.

I am happy that I am getting better of animating some postures, especially the walking part, because it does look more real, yet still owns that clumsiness. I draw from a memory, so always have to create a plan and imagine and cut in frames some actions. Meaning, I have to run or walk in my room, stand in front of the mirror.

Moreover, I am very happy that it looks like drawing. YAY to me, because I like this raw drawing image! There are many flaws, but it doesn’t matter. Those flaws are somehow beautiful and can be perfect. And in this case, I think it compliments the animation itself.

Yet, I have to work more on those postures and draw more and quicker.

For such long time I was so comfortable with my pencil line drawings, that achieve something like this was hard to imagine. I learned that using pastel pencils makes me more confident and I am not afraid of material I am using. I don’t need rubber to fix it, I just letting it go.

I feel that I am in a good place. I am more relaxed, more focused and I work more. I have so much work left to do, but step by step I am getting closer.

Although, I would like to improve some postures and add more frames in between, but at the moment I’m using 10 frames per second.

All drawings are A5 size, scanned and edited (cropped) in Photoshop, edited and rendered in After Effects, for compression I used Hanbrake and to make GIFs I used Photoshop.

For comparison, my one of the first and recent animation of streetwalker walking: